At length, seeing how violently they were bombarded, fearing Saladin would not help, the people of Acre took counsel and thought they had best surrender to the Franks because King Richard terrified them. They asked safe conduct for ambassadors, praying that Philip might lift his assault while they discussed the business. Having got this assurance they sent a deputation to speak with him in his tent. They told him the city would be delivered if those inside might leave with their families and goods. He answered that everything within Acre must be his, yet he would grant their lives.
King Richard, all unaware, thinking he would take the city for himself, doubled his attack. Now the Turks in King Philip’s tent rebuked him. What safe conduct is this? they asked. We thought this must hold until we returned to Acre, but look you. The English king does much damage. Since you are not strong enough to bid him stop, we ask leave to depart.
I will punish the English for violating this truce, King Philip said. Chronicles relate that already he had buckled on leg armor when counselors persuaded him to let the matter drop. Otherwise great harm would have ensued.
Two winters and a summer the city lay besieged. Christian and heathen alike wearied of the struggle. Each came to know the face of his enemy. At times they would put aside their weapons to mingle peaceably. There would be dancing, singing, feasts, entertainment, much as happened in the days of Iftikhar and Duke Godfrey and Bohemond and Tancred while Jerusalem lay under siege. Children contested the field in mock battle, uttering shrill war cries, charging, retreating, little captives ransomed for a piece of gold. But on the twelfth of July in our year of grace 1191, those defending Acre knew they could not prevail. Caracois, who was in charge, agreed to Christian terms. Documents tell how a swimmer left the harbor to notify Saladin and he was horrified. They say that while he sat in front of his tent composing a message to the garrison forbidding surrender he saw Frankish banners unfurl. He moved away from Acre and camped along the road to Saphori, knowing he must wait to receive ambassadors whose faith he mistakenly thought untrue.
King Richard stipulated that all captives must be freed, whether held in the city or in Saladin’s camp. As indemnity for Christian loss, two hundred thousand gold pieces, four hundred extra for the marquis of Tyre. Lastly, Saladin must deliver up the True Cross, which he captured during the battle of Hattin. If these terms were met, the lives of all who defended Acre would be spared. Until such time, for insurance, Richard imprisoned the garrison. He then took up lodging in the royal palace. King Philip lodged in what had been the Templar fortress.
Unseemly quarrels disturbed the Christian host. Archduke Leopold of Austria, wrapped in conceit, thinking himself equal to the kings of England and France, flew his standard from a tower, which so nettled King Richard that with his own hand he pulled down the standard, tramped across it and flung it in a cesspool. Next, some dispute opposed Guy de Lusignan to Conrad de Montferrat. This was in turn reflected by quarrels among lesser lords.
And now Philip Augustus, weary, desperate for the sight of France, resolved to quit this insalubrious land. Those who fought beneath his standard felt disconcerted and bewildered. Acre is a handsome prize, said they among themselves, yet does not the reconquest of Jerusalem matter more? Such was their resentment that many spoke of disavowing him as their lord. But he was ill and wished to go home. On the last day of July he departed, sailing to Brindisi, thence to France. In our year of grace 1223 he was at Mantes holding parliament during the feast of Saint Mary Magdalene when death saw fit to reach for him. He confessed, abjured past malfeasance, made his devises. To the Holy Land he bequeathed a third part of his treasure, to the indigent a third, to the Crown of France a final third in order that it might be governed and defended, whereupon he gave back his soul to God. Although he was blind in one eye, none that knew Philip considered him imperceptive. They thought him a skeptical monarch, shrewd enough. High barons and knights bore his remains to Saint Denys. At each resting place a cross was erected, the likeness of Philip carved in stone. Archbishop William Joinville himself laid King Philip away and chanted mass. The tomb is all gold and silver, very fine. On the four sides in relief stand forty-eight bishops with mitres on their heads, croziers in their hands.
After he had gone King Richard looked toward the restoration of Acre. It seemed advisable to fortify the walls and otherwise maintain the city as a lighthouse of Christianity, a beacon that would blind the Saracen eye, pierce and thwart the Saracen heart. He walked among the masons while they worked, exhorting them, since it was always his intent to recover God’s inheritance. However, a plethora of women and Syrian wine proved inimical to his purpose, debauching soldiers, making them slothful, complacent, oblivious. Ambroise relates in verse how these women cast their spell, how lechery, gluttony, every sort of vice conspired to vitiate and spoil the aims of conquest. This was because the diabolic agent of discord through stratagem and tricks, allurement, persuasion, seeks always to multiply the army of the damned.
When three weeks were up, this being the term fixed by Richard for payment and restitution of the Holy Cross, it appeared that Saladin was a transgressor who did not stand to his word and covenant. Often enough he would despatch envoys with artful words and gifts, arguing
